Research on the Regulation of Field Emission Properties in Ti₃C₂ MXene/Carbon Nanotube Composite Films

The 2-D Ti3C2 (MXene) materials have found applications in various fields, partic-ularly as a candidate for field emission electron source when mixed with carbon nano-tubes (CNTs) as the electron source material. In this study, a novel multilayer film structure utilizing Ti₃C₂ (MXene) / CNTs and fabricate a unique field emitter device using these 2-D Ti3C2 (MXene) / CNT materials have been presented. The material ex-hibits a tensile stress of 950 MPa and a low elongation at break of 8%. Specifically, uti-lizing the sharp edges of this material for emission, the field emission characteristics of Ti3C2 (MXene) and Ti3C2 (MXene) / CNT have been compared. The field emission char-acteristics of Ti3C2 (MXene) and Ti3C2 (MXene) / CNT have been compared. Measuring the current density is up to 3.49 A∙cm-2 at an electric field of 2.91 V∙µm−1, It has low turn-on field (Eon) 1.6 V∙ m-1, and low threshold electric field (Eth) 0.22 μA.cm-2. The field enhancement factor β of Ti3C2 (MXene) / CNT is about 4.5 times more than pristine Ti3C2 (MXene). Utilizing curved tip of Ti3C2 (MXene) / CNT emission, the field emission current device slightly increases surround the vacuum degree from 1.010-3 Pa to 4.710-5, and the current can be emitted steadily for a duration of 1 hour under the voltage of 723 V and vacuum level of 1.010-3 Pa. Those results provide that this kind of multilayer film Ti₃C₂ (MXene) / CNT exhibits exceptional mechanical properties and can be easily shaped, particularly suit to fabricate vacuum electronic devices and other uses.